County Court claims

[onetruth]

Your and your debtor's status will be key in deciding if it's worth taking out a CC claim.

 

If they are a Limited Company, and they are not in or about to enter any kind of insolvency proceedings, you will have a good chance of recovering your money if your claim is successful.

 

If they are an employed (not self employed) individual and they dispute the invoice, you should be able to recover the money if sucessful. If they own their own home and the value of the debt is high (I think over about £2k), you will have more options open to you.

 

Unemployed, retired or self-employed - much less likely. You may find the Judge decides they can only afford £5 a week. CC bailiffs cannot levy on goods that are a self-employed person's "tools of the trade". With good reason. If the debtor doesn't dispute the invoice but instead has chosen to ignore it completely (as for the O.P.), they may, as others have suggested, believe that they will be able to get away with not paying even if enforcement is attempted.

 

The methods of enforcement open to you are:

send a CC bailff round (Warrant of Execution)

ask a CC Judge to make their employer pay you out of their wage (Attachment of Earnings Order)

force them to pay you when they sell their house (Charging Order)

start involuntary bankruptcy proceedings (or winding-up if a company) - if I remember rightly the debt must be >£500, and the Judge will need to be satisfied that they cannot pay their debts

(there is one other "standard" CC enforcement route but I can't remember what it is)

 

The price was (when I worked in a CC about 10 years ago) about £45 for a WoE, £50 for a AoE, and £500 to begin bancruptcy proceedings. I can't remember what a Charging Order cost. The amount is added to the debt, but you still have to pay it first!

 

If the debt is big enough you can upgrade the Judgement to the High Court. Their enforces have greater powers (especially when siezing goods). No idea on what this would cost - it seemed to happen very rarely.

 

A couple of other things: probably best to start the claim in your local CC. If the debtor is a Ltd, the claim should stay in that Court. If they are a private individual, however, and they choose to defend the claim, it will probably be transfered to their local CC.

 

Disclaimer: info offered to give folks an idea of how the system works, I'm no solicitor and don't know if there have been any changes since I left that particular soul destroying job, and I have smoked a marajuana cigarette in the intervening time, possibly causing irreparable damage to my memory of English civil law proceedings. Get advice if it's big bucks - the Citizens' Advice Beurea was ok for individuals (not Ltds). Also... first you'll have to win the judgement - you will need to prove your case to someone who knows nothing about arboriculture.

 

Someone said: "i also sent bailiff round but they would not take stereo computer etc unless i payed the storage till sold" - never heard of this. CC bailiff or private debt recovery firm?

[onetruth]

One other thing I'll mention - the records of insolvancy proceedings are (I think) public. Your local CC may also be the area's insolvance court: and IVs, winding-ups and bankruptcies must take place at the debtor's local insolvancy court. It might be wise to check there's nothing happening before you fork out on the first of possibly many court fees. If they are insolvant, depending on when the debt occurred, you should be able to add yourself as a creditor (it may or may not be worth it!)

 

^^^ same disclaimer as for previous post!

[Quickthorn]

Good posts, onetruth, thanks for that.

 

Do you have any idea what the success rate is for getting what's owed once you've got a judgement in your favour? It seems to me that there are a lot more stories where the debtors get away with it compared to actions that get the creditor paid.

[onetruth]

Do you have any idea what the success rate is for getting what's owed once you've got a judgement in your favour?

I don't know statistically - data may have been published but I think it would be quite hard to interpret.

 

It seemed to me that Ltd cos nearly always paid up either on receipt of judgment or as soon as the bailiffs turned up, unless of-course they were about to go insolvent. It's a lot easier for private individuals to run or fiddle the system.

 

Personally, if a customer just plain refused to pay me (and wasn't disputing the work or price), I would think very hard before chasing the debt in the Court, which could end up costing me more than the job was worth: I would need to be sure that the Court would decide they can afford it. I certainly saw lots of statements of Admission from debtors who owned up to debt, which they offered to pay back at the rate of £2 per month. It's an Admission, it goes through automatically, and the creditor gets his sealed Judgement: "the defendant owes £xxx + £xxx in court fees, which must be paid back at £2/month". It is now the claimant's responsibility if he wants to apply for an amendment to the order. No asking for the bailiffs until the terms of the order are breached. And if the defendant's income can be hidden, or they can make it look like their "priority" outgoings are high, it is quite possible that a Judge would agree with them. I can't recall a single case like this where a defendant was even asked to provide proof. Also, the interest you are allowed to claim on a debt (8% pa I think) stops when the judgement is made.

 

I'm certainly not suggesting it was always like this. Most people want to pay within 28 days of judgement because that is the only way of having the record of a CCJ removed from credit referencing. But I will say this: only do it if you think you'll be able to get what you're owed, never do it just out of "principle" because if there's no money (as far as the Courts can see) all you'll end up with is a very expensive bit of paper that says "the Queen agrees that you are right!" (or jargon to that effect).

[Taupotreeman]

Good info onetruth; clear and concise. Some of the gangs here (such as The Mongrel Mob) have taken up debt collecting. They charge a standard fee from what I understand of X amount of dollars plus a percentage. Works out about the same as some of the bigger collection agencies such as Baycorp. Hell, if a couple of tattood hairy ass patched up mob members turned up on my door step to collect an outstanding debt I don't think I'd spend too long arguing.

[Ian Flatters]

Im in the process of taking a company to court and found the info on the website helpful and it also has the froms Small claims, Make a Small Claim, Claims for Debt, Debts in Small Claims Court admittedly it is for small claims but my debt owed is under 5k so this is the route you have to take.